Don't Kill Us!
by undrappreciatedsib
Summary: Two girls run around a space station trying not to get killed by a Xeno, a Yautja, or a fellow human. Some humor. Selfinsert fic with friend. You have been warned.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Neither Sky or I own AVP or anything linked to it. I did come up with the "Texas Cockroaches" line though. Yay, me!

This is the first fanfic I've written while teamed up with Sky and I must say that this couldn't have been done without her. She's awesome. Thank you, Sky.

AVPAVPAVP

In a cell made of clear acrylic walls, two girls were coming back to consciousness. One of them, the long-haired one named Sky, sat up and promptly dropped her aching head into her hands. She groaned as her friend, the curly-haired Allison, sat up and blinked at her surroundings.

"What happened?" she asked as Sky looked over at her now-conscious friend.

-Flashback-

Allison and Sky finally made their way out of the building and dashed to the space docks.

Safety! They had just been introduced to a large shiny alien with a drooling problem and they did NOT want to meet it again.

Sadly, a line of soldiers was blocking their way. They grabbed the two women and halted their escape.

"Where do you think you are going?" one asked with unnatural calm.

"Off this station!" Allison yelled back as she struggled for freedom. Sky had writhed free by kicking her captor between the legs and was about to help her friend when another soldier restrained her.

All of them froze when an inhuman scream rent the air and two huge, bipedal, armored aliens came running out the door previously passed through by the two girls. They killed the soldiers blocking the door, though sadly not the ones restraining Allison and Sky. That quickly became irrelevant when Allison and Sky were released and all of the soldiers ran for it.

Sometimes it doesn't matter how big a gun you have when faced with a pair seven foot tall aliens.

More guards, these heavily armed and armored, streamed out of the doorway.

The two women took off grateful for the distraction, away from the guards and, inadvertently, towards the aliens.

It didn't matter though as they were all gunned down from behind.

-End Flashback-

"Right," Allison said. "But why are we still alive?"

Sky reassured herself that she was in one piece, but her back was one giant throbbing pain. "I think they used hollow rounds. You know, the ones that stun?"

"That would explain a lot," Allison commented as she had now discovered the reason her chest felt like a trampoline after a five year old's birthday party. Looking up, Allison moaned, "Oh, no."

Sky turned her head in surprise. "What?"

Allison pointed to two large figures in the acrylic cell next to theirs. It was the aliens from before. They were sitting on the floor and were staring at the two human females.

"Glad to see you're awake," a voice from outside of both acrylic cells said. The heads of all four beings snapped towards it. The voice originated from a man wearing a white coat with graying hair and a malicious grin.

"Who are you?" Sky asked standing up.

"Why are we in here!?" Allison shouted, joining Sky. It was one thing to be locked up but to be kept prisoner in a place with transparent walls? With aliens looking at you?

"You are under arrest for aiding in the escape of these...things," he indicated to the aliens who growled at him. Obviously they didn't think highly of the man and knew when they were being insulted.

"Aiding!? We weren't aiding, we were escaping death from that thing that got loose!" Allison shouted in fury.

"And you just happened to be fleeing after them?," the scientist pointed out.

"YES!"

He snorted and turned his back. "Release it," he commanded to no one in view as he walked out.

The two women looked at each other in fright. A metal clank from an air vent caught their attention just in time for them to see a large, fleshy, spider-like thing with a long tail come leaping out and land in the center of the cell floor. Allison screamed, Sky made a low noise of surprise and disgust, and both decided to back into opposite corners. The bizarre creature turned around a few times, trying to decide which human would be its victim.

Meanwhile, all the personnel directly involved who had been on shift were gathered into a security guard station watching the video feeds for the two acrylic cells. The sounds of betting filled the room.

"The frizzy-haired one will die first!" one claimed.

"No, the thin one will!" countered another.

No one noticed the heavy footsteps approaching the room.

The face hugger selected its target and leapt towards her head. Sky shoved herself into the corner as much as she could in a vain attempt to avoid the thing flying towards her face. She raised an arm an anticipation of the collision...which never happened. Allison had leapt up when she saw the creature jump towards her friend's head and snatched its tail.

Allison stared at it in fascination until it started trying to crawl up her arm.

"EEEEEEW! IT'S LIKE A TEXAS COCKROACH!!!!!"

Before it(we all know it's called a "facehugger" but they don't) could retaliate, she swung it against the wall, again and again, each time resulting in a wet thwack and a screech.

When she was sure the creature was dead, Allison threw the bizarre corpse into the furthest corner of the cell. She glared at it, and if it hadn't already been dead, her expression would have done a fine job. She wiped her hand on her jeans and shuddered.

"Hey, look at this," Sky said as she pointed to the smears of green blood left on the wall.

Allison turned around. "What?"

"It's acidic." The blood was melting the acrylic.

"It's acidic." The blood was melting the acrylic.

Back in the security room, the men, though suprised at the outcome of releasing the facehugger into the room, were laughing at the frizzy-haired woman's reaction. The laughter ended when the spear-like end of a xenomorph tail went through the closed door and ripped out a chunk of the wood large enough for the men to see the black creature beyond. The door was quickly torn apart and the men inside...well, you can probably figure out what happened to them. 

Allison looked at the creature, at the acidic blood on the wall, then back at the creature. She retrieved its corpse from the corner where it had been thrown. Sky backed up to stand behind Allison as Allison spattered the melting wall with more green blood. When there was a good-sized hole, the small cadaver was returned to its corner at high velocity and the two humans evacuated the cell.

Sky looked around. "Weird," she commented, "there's no one here. Not that I'm complaining…" There were absolutely no people in the room, the room next to it, or out in the hallway. From what she could see, there appeared to be no one in the rooms off the hall, either. "Is this when the walls start to try and squish us?"

"We should let them out," Allison said suddenly.

"What?" Sky about-faced slack-jawed. None of Allison's ideas had ever been this crazy.

Allison was watching the two aliens and they were watching her. At least, they appeared to be. You couldn't really tell because of the face masks they both wore.

"C'mon, let's! They're in the same position as us. It wouldn't be right to leave them like this." Allison began searching for something to open their cells with.

Sky stared at her. Knowing it was futile because her friend was painfully stubborn, Sky began to help her.

After a minute's search, Sky found a keypad in the wall. "This might be it," she said as she walked up to it. Allison came up behind her as Sky started messing with the keypad. After a moment of pressing buttons, a seamless door in the acrylic slid open.

The two alien hunters got out and made their way to leave.

"Hey…" Allison said. One of them growled and she shrank back. They walked through the door, which automatically slid open to allow them passage. "You're welcome," Allison grumbled sarcastically when they were well out of earshot.

"Unless you have any desire to stay here," Sky pointed out, "we should probably leave."

"Right."

The two escapees stepped out into the hallway after the aliens and the door slid shut with a hiss behind them.

Sky and Allison were looking into the various rooms they passed while going down the hallway in search of something useful. "Hey, check this out," Allison called to Sky, who was slightly further ahead in the hallway, as she entered the room. Sky turned back and followed her.

The room contained technical equipment that the pair could neither name, nor guess the purpose of. On a table with said equipment were odd-looking objects that seemed familiar. Allison picked up a thing that looked like a nightstick with blades on the ends and Sky grabbed something that looked like it was meant to be worn on an arm, a large muscular arm.

"Whoa," Allison jumped back as the thing in her hand extended with a click into a long double-headed spear.

"Cool," Sky said as two thin, cruel-looking blades appeared out of her object.

"I know it's rude to take other people's things without permission. But can't we make an exception?" Allison grinned.

Sky grinned back. The two girls eagerly took more of the strange equipment, everything they could find—which wasn't much—and left with it.

"Now, how to get out," Sky muttered as the pair wandered down a hallway. They had encountered no one, despite being free for nearly thirty minutes.

They came to a large, familiar room, the cafeteria, also empty. "Now I know where we are!" Allison said, glad she was somewhere familiar.

Behind her, Sky swore.

"Wha-? Oh." The two feeble humans looked at the deadly-looking black creature that had frozen in place and was currently staring at them. (How you stare at something when you have no eyes, I don't know, but this creature was doing so.) Without warning (why would it warn you?) it became motion incarnate and sped toward the pair.

Allison and Sky dove away from each other as the black thing came toward them and ran from it. When neither of them felt claws sink into their flesh, they turned around to see what had happened. The creature was standing between them looking back and forth.

It picked Allison because she looked tastier. Allison promptly resumed running and dove beneath a table, rising on the other side, never losing speed. Sky ran towards her to get close enough to the thing to divert its attention, which quickly became unnecessary. The drooling alien looked around and hissed as if sensing something.

Sky exploited the distraction by shoving a spear through the creature. Well, that was her goal anyway. She wasn't strong enough to give the spear enough energy to go through the thing. Instead, the head buried itself into the creature's back. It screamed and hit Sky with a sweep of its tail, sending her crashing across a table.

It turned on her, but Allison grabbed Sky's spear and twisted it to cause more internal damage. The creature screamed again and staggered as it was mortally wounded. Sky got back up in time to see the black thing jerk itself free of her spear. Green acidic blood was flowing from the gaping wound and spilling onto the floor. It towered over Allison.

Sky threw one of the things with the thin retractable blades and it hit the creature, which spun to face her. Allison promptly replaced the spear into the creature's back, shoving it farther in.

The black thing staggered and died. Sky rejoined Allison as she pulled out the spear. They would have celebrated their victory, but the two aliens from before deactivated their cloaks and materialized near the wall.

"Um, hi guys," Allison said as they came up to the pair. "Want your stuff back?"

For the equipment they had taken indeed belonged to them. Sky and Allison proffered the stolen weapons and the warriors took them chittering, turned, and walked away.

Allison turned her head to Sky, "I'm getting a weird sense of deja vu."

The two women followed them out as they wound their way out of the compound once again. This time, the hulking aliens did nothing to stop the two girls from following them. Every once in a while one of them would look back as if to check if they were still there. This was continued all the way to the docking bay.

A huge ship materialized at one of the docks and the two aliens made their way toward it, followed at a distance by Allison and Sky, who halted when they came near the ship because more similarly armored beings appeared.

Since those were unmasked, the strange faces with four mandibles around the mouth were obvious.

As the two boarded the ship, one of the guards came forward. He seemed to be older and in charge. He carried himself with authority and a figure that demanded respect. He dropped one of the collapsible spears into Allison's hands and nodded to her and Sky. Then he turned around and the aliens boarded the ship, which immediately left the docking station and became not-quite-invisible as the cloak was activated.

Allison and Sky stared in awe.

"One spear?" Allison said breaking the silence. "How are we supposed to split this?"

AVPAVPAVP

The review button is calling to be pressed!


	2. Chapter 2

Well, we've decided to continue our adventures instead of keeping it as a one-shot. By the way, Allison and Sky are in their early 20s. Even though we're not in real life. Now then! Starting where the story left off…

AVPAVPAVP

"One spear?" Allison said. "How are we supposed to split this?"

"I don't know, but we can leave now." The two women began walking toward the area of the docks where the escape pods were held.

Allison slowed her pace slightly when she drew close to two scientists also heading for the escape pods so she could listen in to their conversation. Apparently they were oblivious of what had happened not a minute before.

"…two specimens."

"Yes, it's a shame that those xenomorphs escaped. Otherwise we could study those little yautja that the marines captured earlier."

"I thought some adults were captured?"

"Yes, but there was something about them escaping with some help from two women. I'm not sure."

Allison stopped in shock. Sky, who had been inspecting the spear in its collapsed form and not listening, bumped into her back. She looked up and saw the scientists walking away.

"What is it?" she hissed at her friend, sensing the need to be quiet.

Allison turned around and grabbed Sky's free hand. "We have to go back!" She ran back towards the compound, dragging her friend behind her, who struggled to keep up with the sudden change of pace.

Just as the two get inside, Sky wrenches her hand free and stops, forcing Allison to also stop. "What are you doing?"

"I overheard those scientists talking. They said something about xenomorphs escaping and capturing two small yautja and about two adult yautja escaping with help from two women."

"So those warrior aliens are called yautja? Then the black creatures must be xenomorphs." Sky commented putting a contemplative finger to her lips.

"Yes, but that isn't the point! Two small yautja were captured! That must mean they're children. We have to save them!"

"Those older yautja will probably be pissed when they find out their kids are gone…" Sky commented.

"Exactly! And they're only kids. We need to save them!" Allison looked at Sky beseechingly even though they both knew that if Sky didn't agree then Allison'd go rescue the little yautjas alone.

Sky gave in. "Okay, okay. I think I remember how to get to the labs."

The two took off again, this time with Sky in the lead. They made their way through the damaged cafeteria and to the hallways beyond. After passing the open door of what appeared to be a barracks, they were stopped by a familiar voice.

"Hold it!" A horrifyingly familiar voice. "What do you two think you are doing?"

Sky hid the spear behind her back and moved closer behind Allison to hide the position of the arm holding the spear as the two turned around to face Sergeant Bruffy, a marine against whom the two had a particularly intense vendetta.

It had all started when the women arrived for required physical training. The sergeant had harassed Sky for weeks which was why Allison had put Icy Hot in his clothes. Everyone had enjoyed the sight of their tyrannical instructor trying to keep his dignity while squirming in place.

While Allison and Sky had never been accused of pulling the prank, the vengeful Bruffy had his suspicions.

"Standing here staring at a piece of ----!" Allison snapped bravely.

Bruffy's expression went cold. He opened his mouth to speak when a younger soldier interrupted and exclaimed, "Sir, we're needed in sector 4! There's an escaped Xeno!"

Bruffy swore, glared angrily at the two impudent women standing before him, and then took off at a run with three soldiers, two of which had come running out the door after the first, in the opposite direction, towards sector 4.

"Well, that's a first," Sky said.

"Yeah. Usually he uses an array of insults and threatens to have us killed or shipped off to some planet where it's likely we'll be killed before leaving."

"I guess today isn't wholly bad."

"We still have two children to save," Allison pointed out.

"Right." Sky resumed her run down the hall with Allison following.

After multiple wrong turns, they found the containment cells in the science department. The two yautja children were in an acrylic cell with an assortment of scientists that were too stupid to leave staring at them. The two women promptly entered and forced all of the scientists out but one. Allison stood look out while Sky forced the remaining scientist to open the acyrlic cell holding the yautja children. When he did, she promptly handed him over to Allison who kicked him out of the room as well. His feet made little pat-pat sounds as he ran down the hall after his co-workers.

Though the children did not understand the strange ooman speak, they trusted the adult female who had opened their cell to an extent because she had opened the door, there was a faint smell of yautja about her, and she carried one of their combisticks.

Sky was relieved when the two children came out at her bidding. She guided them out, Allison going ahead to check for soldiers and or scientists.

Allison noticed that something was missing. "Hey, where'd they all go?"

She looked down the hall and saw a suspicious dark splatter at a corner. The four ran down the hall towards it, slowing down and stopping when they came within a few meters. It was blood. Fresh blood. Though the smells of blood, fresh meat, and waste were screaming at them not to, the two women peeked around the corner. In the corner at the far end was an eviscerated body missing its head, left arm, and a significant chunk of its left shoulder. A tattered white robe stained with blood was at its feet. A long, black, deadly tail slid around the corner and out of sight. The two withdrew in horror and disgust as the sounds of running, screaming, and shredding permeated the halls.

Since the coast was clear, Sky ran on to the next junction with Allison and the two yautja trailing behind. The two humans tried not to gag while the yautja seemed unaffected.

"We'll have to carry them," Allison said.

Sky looked back at her friend after determining that the next hall was clear. "Why?"

"They're having a hard time keeping up." And though they were fast, the kids had short legs.

Sky sighed, giving in to her friend's suggestion. She crouched down on one knee and held her arms out behind her. One of the children clambered on and hooked his arms over her shoulders, careful not to choke her, and wrapped his legs around her waist, hooking his feet together so he would stay in place. The other one climbed up on Allison after seeing what his sibling did and similarly secured himself.

"We are leaving now," Sky said.

"I'm not disagreeing with that." Allison replied staring in the direction they were going. They ran.

They made their way back out of the compound again, but this time they had two young yautja with them and there was the occasional spatter of blood. Thankfully they saw no more corpses but they were often hearing echoes of screams and gunfire.

They reached the docks for the third time today and ran again for the escape pods. Halfway there, the yautja ship dropped its cloak. Had it come back? Or had it never left? Whichever it was, velocity was corrected and the ship became the running humans' target.

Sgt. Bruffy appeared from a nearby exit and ran towards them, shouting angrily. Though Allison and Sky were running as fast as they could, he was gaining on them. So they dislodged the kids from their backs and sent them running towards their ship with a forceful "Go!".

As Bruffy was reaching under his jacket for what was obviously a concealed weapon, he was tackled by Allison and Sky. Together they had enough momentum to bring the Sergeant crashing to the ground. He pulled out a small handgun from a shoulder holster and aimed for the two small fleeing figures, but Sky slapped it out of his hand with a swing of the collapsed spear she had managed to hold onto. Allison began clawing at the marine's face.

Bruffy growled in frustration and reversed the tackle on Sky as he kicked Allison away. He was a marine, and damned if he would let two women hold him down!

The two yautja fled inside the ship and an older yautja warrior came out to watch the three oomans fight amongst themselves. He secretly hoped the two females would win.

It was believed that humans would ever help a yautja, let alone, save yautja children. It had been quite a scare when he'd been informed that two of their pups had left the ship. A search party had been assimilating when these two females had shown up with the pups on their backs. Now, it looked like victory for the females was doubtful.

To Bruffy's surprise, the end of a xeno's tail was sticking through his stomach. He stared at it as the pain failed to register in his mind. That quickly lost significance as a problem when the inner mouth of the black alien pierced the back of his skull and came out the other side. Blood, brains, and bone fragments spattered onto Sky's upper body as she stared open-mouthed in shock. Allison, who had recovered, looked on in horror.

The xenomorph flung Bruffy's cadaver aside and bent over the defenseless human, saliva dripping from its maw and onto its prey.

Sky only had enough time to think, "Oh, crap," before…before…a spear impaled the black, elongated head above her. Acidic blood spattered her, but she didn't notice because she was too busy getting out from under the black thing.

The xenomorph crashed to the ground as the older warrior who had thrown the spear withdrew inside the yautja ship, which immediately cloaked and left the space docks.

Allison retrieved their spear while Sky stared at the xenomorph, shocked at how close to death she had come. Allison provoked the spear into telescoping and then poked the black corpse with one end. When it didn't move, she crept closer and pulled out the second spear. Acidic blood slid off the end without leaving a mark.

"Well, now we have two spears," she said, looking at her friend. "Your shirt is smoking," she next observed.

Sky looked down at her acid-splattered overshirt and swore, then pulled it up over her head, burning a few small streaks into the skin on her face in the process, and threw it away from her.

"Now then, to the escape pods!" Allison said, raising one of the spears above her head. The two women ran to the end of the docks where the escape pods were located and climbed into one.

As Sky started it up, Allison pointed to Sky's face and said, "You might want to take care of those."

Sky finished the launch procedure—they were designed for people who were not techno savvy and, thus, easy to operate—and looked at her friend. "Take care of what?"

"The acid burns. I'll pilot the ship."

Sky touched her face and felt small streaks of blood on her face. "Oh. Those." She paused, and realized that the small wounds were faintly throbbing. "The blood washed out the acid. They aren't a problem." She retrieved a first aid kit from the back of her seat anyway and proceeded to clean up her face.

"Oh, I love zero-grav!" Allison said as the small escape pod left the compound and before she started the artificial gravity. Then the pod jerked to the side as if it had been hit by small space debris.

"What was that?" Allison asked as the med kit slid off Sky's desk. Sky brought up visual.

There before them was the yautja ship, and it was getting bigger. "Uh oh," was all Allison could say as their small ship was brought into a docking bay. Allison and Sky looked at each other helplessly.

They turned around in their chairs as the hatch opened to reveal a fully armored, mask-less yautja warror.

Without speaking, both girls thought the same thing, _"Please, don't kill us."_

AVPAVPAVP

Well, what did you think, reader? Please review. It really does help with the writing.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: We do not own anything related to AVP. We also apologize to BlackAngelBlood for not updating before that person left for boot camp. We were suffering from writer's block. Enjoy!

Ta ta,

A

AVPAVPAVP

The two women were careful not to move as they stared at the silent, adult yautja standing in the hatch. He moved to the side and made a kind of scooping motion with one arm.

"I think he wants us to get out," Sky said, interpreting the gesture. She got out of her seat slowly and moved toward the doorway. Her knuckles were white and her fingers hurt because she was gripping the collapsed spear in her right hand so hard.

The tall alien's head turned to follow her as she passed him, but that was all the movement he made.

"Come on, Allison," Sky said quietly to encourage her friend into movement.

Allison, seeing that Sky had passed the yautja without harm, followed Sky out at her prompting. Once together, the two observed details of their location.

They were in a large hangar for drop ships. Extending from one wall was a long platform. Individual ramps extended from this and either attached to drop ships or hung down unused. The pair stood at the top of one of the ramps with one yautja behind them and a second at the bottom of the ramp waiting.

The alien behind them stepped forward as the hatch of their "escape" pod closed. He made a motion to indicate that they should move forward.

Allison was wide-eyed with fear and silent. Sky, also silent, had put up her poker face, but the fact that she still gripped her spear so hard that circulation in her fingers was limited showed she was thoroughly unnerved. Allison also held her spear in a secure grip.

The two women moved forward, Sky leading. When they came within three meters of the second yautja, he turned and walked a short distance, then turned to look at them. They followed obediently with the first yautja in tow.

Their guard escorted them through the ship, past more yautja—some armored and some not—and to an elegantly decorated doorway. The two door panels slid apart, separating the yautja warrior and xenomorph depicted in battle upon the surface, and revealed a moderately sized room. The walls were also decorated, and many skulls were hung on the walls as trophies. I the middle of the room, close to the back wall, was a raised platform. On the raised platform were four yautja. The tallest one was female and pale green in color with blue and white streaks and very long dreadlocks. The second tallest figure, much broader than the first, was male. He was dark orange with brown splotches and red streaks. He had many pale green lines on his skin, scars from many battles. The armor he wore was more elegant than average and a wine red cape was affixed to his shoulders. He also had long dreadlocks. The last two yautja were the children rescued from before.

The two oomans were pushed into the room by their escort and the doors shut. Doubtlessly the two guards would be waiting on the other side of the door. Sky and Allison tried to make themselves smaller under the gazes of the four aliens.

"Come," the warrior growled.

Sky and Allison stepped forward a few feet. Sky was trying to look at them without meeting their gaze and Allison was looking about the room, her head moving in nervous jerks.

"What are you called?" he next asked in a slightly softer growl. His tone was probably trying to calm the visitors down, though it seemed to do nothing.

"Sky," Sky said. "This is Allison," she indicated her companion when she didn't say anything.

"I am Elder Gu'un'ka."

"Elder? To what honor do we owe this meeting?" Sky decided it would be best to be polite and avert rudeness. She would rather not die for bad manners if she had a chance for living.

"You freed two of our warriors and returned their equipment to them and saved two of our young. My two young."

"Your…?" Sky could hardly believe what she was hearing. She gaped up at the elder.

With a clang, Allison's spear hit the ground. She had been so surprised that she had dropped it. No one took notice.

"Those two warriors also tell me that you killed one of the kainde amedha."

"Kainde amedha… The black creatures?"

He nodded.

"Yes." Sky dropped her gaze, embarrassed. "We both did." She rubbed absently at her cheek and smeared a streak of blood from a wound that she hadn't had time to bandage.

Allison finally spoke up. "So…you brought us here…to…thank us?"

"Yes."

Suddenly, the day's exertions caught up with the two women. They ran out of adrenaline. Their bodies ached from all of the physical exertion and the beatings their bodies had taken, they felt sick from nerves, and visibly wilted before the four yautja.

"Guards!" the elder rattled in yautjan, The two from before entered the room and flanked the doors. "Take these oomans to a private room. They need rest." They came forward and stood on either side of them.

"Go with them," the Elder said so they could understand.

To tired to resist, or even care, Allison and Sky left with the two warriors. As they made their way down hallways, Sky dimly noticed that Allison had picked up her spear from where she had dropped it. Then they were in a small room with a single bed that looked like an oversized examination table with padding. Neither could remember the two yautja leaving or the door closing. They automatically climbed up onto the bed. Allison lied down and instantly fell into a dreamless sleep and Sky crawled into a corner and sat there where she too was consumed by the darkness of exhaustion.

They didn't wake up until hours later. Sky sat up—she had fallen over while sleeping—and massaged her sore neck, then coughed once when the air caught in her throat. She nudged Allison, who hadn't moved an inch, into wakefulness with her foot.

"Wha…?" Allison also sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. With a sickening feeling, she realized where she was and that yesterday's events really did happen.

Sky fell backwards in an exaggerated expression of exhaustion and something caught Allison's attention. "Hey…" She crawled over to her friend and pulled up the bottom of her semi-transparent undershirt and whistled.

"What?" Sky sat up to look at whatever had caused Allison's reaction. Across the exposed skin of her stomach was a humongous bruise that had blossomed spectacularly over night. She winced when she touched it. "Ouch." She recalled everything that had happened to her lately. "I bet my back looks worse," she mumbled to herself as she pondered her stomach.

"Let me check," Allison said and Sky rolled over compliantly. Allison lifted the back of her shirt and hissed.

"How bad is it?" Sky asked.

"You look like kinder gardeners used your back as a canvas." Meaning it was a splotchy mess. "There's a thick line across your lower back. When did that happen?"

"Probably when the black thing hit me with his tail and knocked me into that table." Sky pushed herself up into a sitting position and pulled her shirt back down. "Let me check you." Allison turned around to let her friend check her back. Sky rolled up the thick material of their regulation shirts and the undershirt and then gave results. "It's all splotchy, but it doesn't seem too bad." She coughed again.

The door slid open to reveal a younger yautja with dried meat and water. Sky coughed a few more times as she took it and he departed.

"Sky, are you okay?" Allison was concerned.

"Yeah, I think it's just the air. It's different on this ship."

They nibbled on the jerky which had a strange, though not unpleasant, flavor.

Hours later, they were inexplicably worse for wear. A healer had come to check up on them when he overheard a youngling telling a companion about the strange sound of an ooman coughing.

That's odd. They should be able to breathe the air here easily, he thought as her walked down the halls to their room. What he found were too very pale ooman females who appeared to be ill. There was a half eaten plate of dried meat on the bed with them.

Alarmed, the healer used the medical scanner equipped into the mask he always wore (to show that he was a healer and because he always needed to be prepared in case of emergencies) but could not find any poison in the meat or water. So that could not be the cause. He turned the scanner onto one of the oomans and what he found surprised him; they had contracted a common yautja illness. Their bodies had no defense against the foreign bacteria, so they got an extreme version of what would be mild to a yautja.

The long-haired one looked up when she realized that the healer was there. She was sitting in a corner and clinging to her curled up legs. A spasm of pain crossed her face and she dropped her head back to her knees. The larger one with the curly hair was sitting against a wall opposite her companion and suffering a violent coughing fit.

The healer approached them took the arm of the long haired female in a gentle grasp. When she looked up, he pulled slightly and loosed her grip. She uncurled and crawled off to stand on the floor. She coughed a few times and clutched at her chest just above the sternum. He did the same with the other ooman, but the response wasn't as willing.

Allison felt someone grip her arm in a gentle but firm grasp and pull lightly. Eyes watering, she looked up and saw a yautja who was holding Sky with his other hand. Paranoid from illness and slightly irrational, she backed further away.

Seeing panic and resistance from the ooman, the healer went to the door and summoned another yautja, a young warrior in training. He came obediently and picked up the defiant ooman who was too weak to resist and carried her after the healer who partially supported the other oomans weight as they walked to the infirmary.

Upon arriving, Sky got onto the bed she was led to by the healer. She was too distracted to really notice anything.

In the other yautja's arms, Allison watched and looked at the strange medical devices that were in the room. She tried to squirm out of his grasp and succeeded, mainly because she caught him by surprise, but he still had a grip on her arm.

Allison was definitely freaked out. Who says they hadn't just decided to kill her and Sky? She made one last effort to escape before she fell to her knees and vomited on the floor. The young yautja let go in disgust and left the healer to take care of the sick oomans.

When Sky woke, the first thing she experienced was disorientation. The air smelled plain, like it had been recycled and she couldn't see anything. Oh, wait, her eyes were closed. She opened them and saw white. Odd. She reached fingers out and touched a screen that moved at her touch. She drew her arm back and felt the surface she was lying on. It was hard, like metal, and pleasantly cool to the touch, not uncomfortably so. But her skin felt weird. She held still and tried to interpret the sensations that would tell her why. Her front, all of it, was in contact with the metallic surface of whatever she was lying on. Meaning, no clothing. Her back was completely exposed to the air, too. But not all of it. There seemed to be a strange goop spread irregularly across the surface of her skin. There was also a large patch of the stuff on her stomach and small spots on her cheeks.

Finally deciding to move, Sky pushed herself up and sat Japanese style on the metal table. She pondered her predicament. She was in a strange place, though probably still on the yautja's ship, and had been stripped on clothing. She looked down at her stomach and the bruise there and saw that it was covered in what appeared to be a blue transparent gel. It was drying out, though, and appeared to be cracking. Also odd was that the bruise was the unpleasant green and yellow shades that were a sign of being nearly healed. That should take weeks. How long had she been here? Why was she here? She dredged up her most recent memories, memories of being very ill and a yautja coming for her. Oh. This must be some kind of infirmary. Sky looked around and was glad that there was a curtain to shield her from view.

Something else caught her attention when she moved her head. Her hair felt different against her back. She grabbed a clump of it to inspect and discovered that it had been bound into long, thick cords with metal clips to hold them into place. It had also been soaked in some strange substance that kept the hairs together and made each yautja-like dreadlock slick and kind of shiny. As she fiddled with one, noticing how it resisted coming apart with determination, she wondered where Allison was and how she was doing.

The healer yautja pulled the curtain back slightly to slip inside and check on his patient. He thought about how surprisingly well she had responded to their medicine and wondered if there would be side effects, and then realized that she was awake.

A yautja slipped past the curtain and Sky stared at him. He seemed to be pondering something, but looked up when he realized she was staring. The dreadlock in her hand sat forgotten as they stared at each other, unmoving.

Eventually, and with a thick accent, he said, "You are awake."

"Yeah." Sky felt relief that he could speak her language, albeit not as well as the elder she had met before.

"How are you feeling?"

"Better."

There was more silence.

"Can I have some clothes?"

"Oh. Yes, of course." The yautja left, quickly returning with spare clothing.

After figuring out what went where and how, Sky got on the strange synthetic clothing and was decent once more. It was a bit like a bathing suit. A bikini bottom with a strip that rose from the center of the back and split in two. The two strips widened and wrapped around her front, then thinned again after making her chest decent. They then crossed at the nape of her neck and wrapped around it to clip at the back of her neck. The strange material, brown in color, seemed to stick to her skin. It stretched and moved with her but did not dislodge or even shift.

"Um, what happened?" Sky asked the yautja, who she realized must be a healer because he wore a different mask

"You contracted a common illness, but don't worry, for you are now healed."

Sky picked at the gel on her stomach. "What's this?"

"That is fire gel. It is used for healing wounds."

"Why's it called fire gel?"

The healer raised an eye ridge and left, only to return with a small tub of fresh blue gel. "Turn around."

Sky had the feeling that whatever was about to happen would not be pleasant, but she had asked, so she turned her back to the healer. He rubbed the old gel away from her entire back. Most of the bruising was a pale shade of yellow and nearly gone, but a stripe on her lower back, like on her front, wasn't so far along. The healer's touch withdrew for a moment, but then fresh fire gel was spread on the bruise. Sky immediately knew why it was called fire gel and her breath escaped in a hiss and she flinched away.

"Turn around again. I have to get your front."

Sky reluctantly obeyed. She tried to block out the burning while the old gel was rubbed off her stomach.

"This is a diluted form. Full strength is only used on open wounds."

Sky was skeptical as more of the fire was applied to her stomach. She rubbed the stuff from her face and hoped none would be applied there. She was relieved when the small tub was returned to where it had come from. "What about Allison?" she asked after the fire grew less intense.

"Allison? Ah, your companion. She has also recovered and should wake soon."

"That's good." Sky's stomach growled.

The healer made and odd clicking noise which could be interpreted as laughter and left, returning with more of the dried meat from before, then left again, presumably to check on Allison.

Allison's reaction was much less calm when she woke up. She heard her friend and an unfamiliar, growling voice talking. One of the yautja. Suddenly the voices stopped and footsteps drew near to where she was. At that moment, she realized that something important was missing.

As the healer appeared, Allison screamed, "Oh my god, where are my clothes!"

Sky, who had been getting off her bed to stand on the floor and stretch, fell to the ground in surprise.

The healer, who had frozen in shock, knelt down and picked up a pile of folded clothing that had been sitting on the floor and gave them to the ooman. Then he left because this ooman was obviously offended. He thought that very strange indeed because it had not been necessary to remove all of her clothing, as it had with the other who had been considerably calmer.

Allison hurriedly donned her pants and shirt and then peeked around the curtain around her bed because she heard voices. She saw the yautja and, past him and partly concealed, her friend Sky.

"Sky!" She called out.

Sky and the healer abruptly stopped talking and she sidestepped to better see her friend. "Hey Allison." Then she frowned. "How come you got your clothes back?"

The healer answered. "Your clothes were damaged and not worth keeping," he said, looking at Sky.

"Oh." Sky looked down at the skimpy garment she wore. "I like this better anyway."

"You're lucky. That so wouldn't look good on me…" Allison pretended to whine.

"You pessimist," Sky responded without feeling.

"What's that stuff on your stomach?"

"It's some healing substance called fire gel. Pray you never discover why."

The healer interrupted the oomans' conversation. "I must tell the elder that you are well. Please remain here." He left.

Allison spotted Sky's hair. "When did your hair get like that?"

"Hm? Oh, I don't know. Probably while we were unconscious. You have them, too."

Allison fingered her much shorter dreadlocks. "Wonder why."

"Maybe he was bored," Sky speculated.

"'He'?"

"The healer."

After a moment of silence, Allison blurted, "We look like gorgons!"

Allison and Sky both laughed for a minute and then fell into silence. They mostly looked at the floor but would glance at each other. Then two yautja entered. They were the two small children from before. And they were both holding something. Sky crouched down to their level and one of them handed an elegantly carved dagger to her.

She admired it. "Thank you." She also bent her head in acknowledgement. He chattered back.

Allison was presented with her own special dagger and also thanked them.

They fled as if afraid of being caught. Sky and Allison found their spears on a small table and grabbed them.

When the healer returned, he found both oomans sitting on the calm one's platform. They had discovered their combi-sticks and were looking at them in detail. He noticed that the calm ooman had a dagger tucked against her hip that she hadn't had before and hadn't been in the infirmary.

"Where did you get that?" He pointed at the weapon.

"It was a gift," she said cryptically. "We both got one."

He understood. "The younglings showing their gratitude, are they?"

"How did you know?"

"Gifts are given as rewards or as shows of gratitude." He shifted his stance. "Since you have recovered, the elder would like to see you."

"Right now?"

He nodded.

Both women got up off the table. "Okay then." They followed the healer out.

They were taken to the same room as before, but this time the elder was with other warriors. Unsurprisingly, they were all decked out in full armor and equipment.

Elder Gu'un'ka went straight to the point. "Since you have already killed a kainde amedha on your own, and since you rescued two younglings and two young bloods, you are given the choice of participating in a Hunt on the ooman base."

"What would we be hunting?"

"The Hard Meat, of course."

Allison and Sky were silent as they thought.

Sky answered first. "Yes, I would like to join the Hunt." Though she was terrified, though her instincts were screaming at her not to, something stronger, more primal than fear, pulled at her to join the warriors. She was surprised at herself, but she did not second-guess her decision.

Allison looked up at her friend in surprise. The yautja turned to her. Allison was torn. She was experiencing similar feelings as her friend, but the call of the Hunt was not as strong in her. The deciding factor was her friend. "Me too," she said.

"Then you shall need awu'asa."

"Awu'asa?"

"Armor."

"Oh. Yeah, armor would be good."

The elder arranged his mandibles in the yautja version of a smile.

AVPAVPAVP

So what did you think, dear readers?


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